Dr. Yanfeng Liu focuses on microbial metabolic engineering and systems biology for efficient synthesis of nutraceutically important and cosmetically useful biochemicals. Specifically, systems biology, computational biology, and systems metabolic engineering approaches were developed and applied to identify and eliminate rate-limiting steps in biosynthesis of nutraceuticals and biochemicals, such as N-acetylneuraminic acid and ceramide. Fermentation process optimization is combined with microbial cell factories construction for improved target compound production. Dr. Liu has authored 14 papers including review and research papers published on peer-reviewed journals, including leading journals in his area, such as Nature Communications, Biotechnology Advances, and Metabolic Engineering, etc. He has won the Best Paper Award of the 7th International Forum on Industrial Bioprocesses (2017). Professor Guocheng Du is the Dean of School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, China. He is the distinguished professor of Changjiang Scholars, Ministry of Education, China. His current main research focus is on bioprocess engineering and metabolic engineering. He has about 200 publications/communications, which include 52 patents, 8 books, 160 original and review papers, etc. He won two Second Prizes of State Science and Technology Award in 2006 and 2012, respectively. He has been conferred Honorary Doctorate degree from Jiangnan University, China. Professor Guocheng Du is deputy director in the committee of biochemical engineering modelling and control, Chinese Society for Microbiology, and deputy director of Beer Branch, China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association. He is the associate editor of Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture and the editorial board member of Bioresource Technology. Dr. Long Liu is currently a life-time professor at School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China. He has been working in the area of bioprocess engineering and metabolic engineering with special reference to bioprocess optimization and control. He has authored 2 books, 3 book chapters, 7 review papers, 20 patents, 37 research papers in SCI journals, and 10 conference papers. He has been a recipient of First prize of Science and Technology progress, Jiangsu, China (2010), First prize of Science and Technology Progress, China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (2011), the Technological Invention Award of China National Light Industry Council (2013), and Excellent Young Teacher of Jiangsu, China (2014).

• 1. Systems biology, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering2. Synthetic regulatory elements for fine-tuning gene expression3. Systems and synthetic biology-aided biosynthesis pathway design4. Refactoring and optimization of metabolic network5. Harnessing the hierarchy of transcriptional regulation: engineering of the gene expression network for efficient production of biofuels6. Systems metabolic engineering strategies for cell factories construction7. High throughput screening for improving cellular and enzymatic properties8. In vitro metabolic engineering: current status and recent progress9. Systems and synthetic metabolic engineering for production of biochemicals10. Systems and synthetic metabolic engineering: Challenges and prospects